1. Nothing Matters
"'Why? Why?' Ridiculous question! Why anything? My advice to---" I clenched my fist though it was absurd, of course. One does not swing at dragons. "No, why?" The dragon tipped up his great tusked head, stretched his neck, sighed fire..." (Gardner 72)
"He shook his head. "My advise to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it." (Gardner 74)
"Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by my having seen the dragon. It's one things to listen, full of scorn and doubt, to poets' versions of time past and visions of time" (Page 75)
"I would fall, if I could, through time and space to the dragon. I cannot. I walk slowly, wiping the snow from my face with the back of my arm." (Gardner 137)
Grendel seems to believe whatever the dragon had told him. He did not question whatever the dragon had told him about. Grendel seems to agree with what the dragon had told him about the world. The quote on page 75 definitely tells that grendel is believing what the dragon said about there is nothing matter in the world. Especially the advice that the dragon gave to Grendel was telling that Grendel should not care about the world and just do nothing since there is nothing in the world that is left for him.
2. Tedium is the most evil in the world
"Tedium is the worst pain. The mind lays out the world in blocks, and the hushed blood waits for revenge. All order, I've come to understand, is theoretical, unreal a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between the two great, dark realities, the self and the world--two snakepits." (Gardner 157)
Grendel believes that the tedium in the world is the worst pain. There is nothing more painful than tedium. Until the Geats came Grendel was in pain and he was very bored and not interested in the world. Therefore, the Geats especially Beowulf have brought happiness to Grendel because he can have some fun with Beowulf in a challenge.
3. There is no God, future, and purpose in life
"He closed his eyes, still smiling. "Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. Now light. Nothing stirring, not even an any, a spider. A silent universe." (Gardner 71)
"What god? Where? Life-force, you mean? The principle of process? God as the history of Chance?" In some way that I couldn't explain, I knew that his scorn of my childish credulity was right" (Gardner 74)
"When the ring was complete, I considered wrecking it again, but the gods were inoffensive, dull. I decided the hell with it" (Garner 129)
As the dragon mentions to Grendel about the world, Grendel is believing what the dragon is telling him. When dragon said about there is no god, Grendel had no question, but only listened about the situation, which makes him believe that there is no god. If there is no god what is the purpose of life? Also, Grendel believes that there is no future, since he has talked to the dragon, which gives him no purpose in life. The quite on page 129 definitely tells that Grendel is not believing that there is God in this world. He decided not to believe what the Ork was doing.
4. Mechanism in the World
"What if everybody should decide the place is public? "God back down, goat!" I yell at him. He keeps on climbing, mindless, mechanical, because it is the business of goats to climb. "Not here," I yell." (Gardner 139)
"The bull struck again. I flinched from the horntip and bellowed with rage and pain. The limbs overhead, stretching out through the clearing like hungry snakes reaching up from their nest" (Gardner 22)
These two quotes represents the mechanism of the world. As the goat and bull do their action to attack Grendel it shows that they only can attack and climb things. Therefore, people also have their mechanism in the world. Everyday, people do the same thing over and over again, which demonstrates the mechanism that people are having in the world. As it has been told in the goat situation, Grendel believes that there is mechanism in things that are living in the world.
5. Past is Irrelevant
"If you with your knowlege of present and past recall that a certain man slipped on, say a banana peel..." (Gardner 63)
This quote definitely explains that there nothing that is relevant to the past. The past is something has gone away we cannot fix it. Therefore, Grendel belived the dragon and had started to be "Grendel."
Statement:
I Grendel, believe that there is no meaning in existence due to mechanism of the world and unplanned accidents, past irrelevancy. If everything is repeated over and over again, what is the point in living life? As I saw the goat climbing the cliff over and over again, I said, "If climbing's your duty to the gods, go climb the meadhall" (Gardner 139). Also, there was another incident that showed me that there world is mechanistic, which was the bull accident. As the "The bull struck again. I flinched from the horn tip and bellowed with rage and pain. The limbs overhead, stretching out through the clearing like hungry snakes reaching up from their nest" (Gardner 22). Since I observed this goat and bull, I found that it is not changing its duties. The goat and bull was in the same mechanism. If the goat is keep on repeating what it has done before, is it meaningless. If we define the word meaningful it means to have some purpose and useful quality. However, the goat's action does not seem very useful. For the humans, they have their own mechanism, too. They are keep fighting and fighting with other nations around them all the time. It is not much different from what goat is doing. As goat is to climb, humans are to fight. From the definition of meaningful, there can be purpose in fighting, but it is not useful for human nature. It is just making them corrupted by their own human nature. At first, I had questioned what Dragon told me, I eventually understood what he had told me. He had told me "What god? Where? Life-force, you mean? The principle of process? God as the history of Chance?" In some way that I couldn't explain, I knew that his scorn of my childish credulity was right" (Gardner 71). I believe that if there was God, the purpose of life should have been given to me. However, I had understood that there is no God in this world who gives purpose or anything due to the fact that God had never given purpose to anyone. Nobody can talk to God, so nobody knows their purpose, which make it seem like there is no purpose. Therefore, if there is no purpose in life, there is no meaning in existence, which makes nothing matter. This makes also past irrelevant because there is no purpose in anything. If there is no purpose, why would past matter? for these reasons, there is only a principle of process, which is basically nothing. Most importantly, everything is just unplanned accident. For example, I did not choose to be born this way; therefore it was unplanned. If these faith and unplanned accidents control our lives, what is the point of living? There are no free will that we can have, which gives us just nothing that we can control with. Thus, existence is meaningless due to mechanism or the world, unplanned accidents, past irrelevancy.
Letter Reflection:
After reading the letter, I learned that there can two points of view in the novel Grendel. One of the points of view was that one could act, as there is God and make values in life; on other hand, the other point means that life is pointless with no values in life, which makes a person live in a lie. Also, I learned that Beowulf was not a true hero for his people; instead he was just an irony. At the end of the novel Beowulf kills the Dragon and he had brought treasure to the people, but what does that mean? Even though they have treasure, that does not mean Beowulf have saved its people, there were the swedes who were going to attack the Geats. The treasure does not mean anything, which makes it an irony. Therefore, the lesson is that no matter how a person is noble, he or she cannot win everything. Then I saw the Dragon's point of view, which informs us that nothing can outlive the universe, which makes life very short. Therefore, the quote "Seek out gold and sit on it" tells that have a gratifying life and live short. Most importantly, I had learned what true authors are. For example, an author must think about all the point of view of the question that the author is going to answer. John Gardner had put two novels together into his own poem and novel, which were Beowulf and Jeal Paul Sartre. Therefore, the main question in the novel seemed to be "Is there God?" Also, Gardner had showed good explanation of what the Shaper was doing with good examples. He had mentioned that George Washington didn't become a hero, but people made him a hero. Therefore, Hrothgar was probably not a good hero until Shaper had really praised him. I learned that Grendel was laughing at Beowulf because Grendel wanted to end his pointless life. One important thing that I learned was that always author has some purpose for their novel. For example, the novel teaches us that there is varieties point of views in life that will helps us to think what to do. The letter seemed to help me to understand the philosophy of the novel. There were a lot of ideas that I did not see very carefully. For example, I though that Grendel was laughing because he could have some fun with Beowulf instead of having tedious life. Therefore, the letter was very informative for me to understand the deeper thought of this novel. Thus, the letter taught me many things with giving good ideas to do well on my trial. The important thing that I learned to do in the trial was to mention that Grendel laughed because he wanted to end his pointless life. I wanted to use this on the trial. Also, the letter had gave me some good background information about the Position two's questions. Also, I want to use the idea about George Washington and Lincoln where the people make them as hero. Therefore, the letter really gave me good ideas that I can use in the trial.
1. Nothing Matters
"'Why? Why?' Ridiculous question! Why anything? My advice to---" I clenched my fist though it was absurd, of course. One does not swing at dragons. "No, why?" The dragon tipped up his great tusked head, stretched his neck, sighed fire..." (Gardner 72)
"He shook his head. "My advise to you, my violent friend, is to seek out gold and sit on it." (Gardner 74)
"Nothing was changed, everything was changed, by my having seen the dragon. It's one things to listen, full of scorn and doubt, to poets' versions of time past and visions of time" (Page 75)
"I would fall, if I could, through time and space to the dragon. I cannot. I walk slowly, wiping the snow from my face with the back of my arm." (Gardner 137)
Grendel seems to believe whatever the dragon had told him. He did not question whatever the dragon had told him about. Grendel seems to agree with what the dragon had told him about the world. The quote on page 75 definitely tells that grendel is believing what the dragon said about there is nothing matter in the world. Especially the advice that the dragon gave to Grendel was telling that Grendel should not care about the world and just do nothing since there is nothing in the world that is left for him.
2. Tedium is the most evil in the world
"Tedium is the worst pain. The mind lays out the world in blocks, and the hushed blood waits for revenge. All order, I've come to understand, is theoretical, unreal a harmless, sensible, smiling mask men slide between the two great, dark realities, the self and the world--two snakepits." (Gardner 157)
Grendel believes that the tedium in the world is the worst pain. There is nothing more painful than tedium. Until the Geats came Grendel was in pain and he was very bored and not interested in the world. Therefore, the Geats especially Beowulf have brought happiness to Grendel because he can have some fun with Beowulf in a challenge.
3. There is no God, future, and purpose in life
"He closed his eyes, still smiling. "Pick an apocalypse, any apocalypse. A sea of black oil and dead things. No wind. Now light. Nothing stirring, not even an any, a spider. A silent universe." (Gardner 71)
"What god? Where? Life-force, you mean? The principle of process? God as the history of Chance?" In some way that I couldn't explain, I knew that his scorn of my childish credulity was right" (Gardner 74)
"When the ring was complete, I considered wrecking it again, but the gods were inoffensive, dull. I decided the hell with it" (Garner 129)
As the dragon mentions to Grendel about the world, Grendel is believing what the dragon is telling him. When dragon said about there is no god, Grendel had no question, but only listened about the situation, which makes him believe that there is no god. If there is no god what is the purpose of life? Also, Grendel believes that there is no future, since he has talked to the dragon, which gives him no purpose in life. The quite on page 129 definitely tells that Grendel is not believing that there is God in this world. He decided not to believe what the Ork was doing.
4. Mechanism in the World
"What if everybody should decide the place is public? "God back down, goat!" I yell at him. He keeps on climbing, mindless, mechanical, because it is the business of goats to climb. "Not here," I yell." (Gardner 139)
"The bull struck again. I flinched from the horntip and bellowed with rage and pain. The limbs overhead, stretching out through the clearing like hungry snakes reaching up from their nest" (Gardner 22)
These two quotes represents the mechanism of the world. As the goat and bull do their action to attack Grendel it shows that they only can attack and climb things. Therefore, people also have their mechanism in the world. Everyday, people do the same thing over and over again, which demonstrates the mechanism that people are having in the world. As it has been told in the goat situation, Grendel believes that there is mechanism in things that are living in the world.
5. Past is Irrelevant
"If you with your knowlege of present and past recall that a certain man slipped on, say a banana peel..." (Gardner 63)
This quote definitely explains that there nothing that is relevant to the past. The past is something has gone away we cannot fix it. Therefore, Grendel belived the dragon and had started to be "Grendel."
Statement:
I Grendel, believe that there is no meaning in existence due to mechanism of the world and unplanned accidents, past irrelevancy. If everything is repeated over and over again, what is the point in living life? As I saw the goat climbing the cliff over and over again, I said, "If climbing's your duty to the gods, go climb the meadhall" (Gardner 139). Also, there was another incident that showed me that there world is mechanistic, which was the bull accident. As the "The bull struck again. I flinched from the horn tip and bellowed with rage and pain. The limbs overhead, stretching out through the clearing like hungry snakes reaching up from their nest" (Gardner 22). Since I observed this goat and bull, I found that it is not changing its duties. The goat and bull was in the same mechanism. If the goat is keep on repeating what it has done before, is it meaningless. If we define the word meaningful it means to have some purpose and useful quality. However, the goat's action does not seem very useful. For the humans, they have their own mechanism, too. They are keep fighting and fighting with other nations around them all the time. It is not much different from what goat is doing. As goat is to climb, humans are to fight. From the definition of meaningful, there can be purpose in fighting, but it is not useful for human nature. It is just making them corrupted by their own human nature. At first, I had questioned what Dragon told me, I eventually understood what he had told me. He had told me "What god? Where? Life-force, you mean? The principle of process? God as the history of Chance?" In some way that I couldn't explain, I knew that his scorn of my childish credulity was right" (Gardner 71). I believe that if there was God, the purpose of life should have been given to me. However, I had understood that there is no God in this world who gives purpose or anything due to the fact that God had never given purpose to anyone. Nobody can talk to God, so nobody knows their purpose, which make it seem like there is no purpose. Therefore, if there is no purpose in life, there is no meaning in existence, which makes nothing matter. This makes also past irrelevant because there is no purpose in anything. If there is no purpose, why would past matter? for these reasons, there is only a principle of process, which is basically nothing. Most importantly, everything is just unplanned accident. For example, I did not choose to be born this way; therefore it was unplanned. If these faith and unplanned accidents control our lives, what is the point of living? There are no free will that we can have, which gives us just nothing that we can control with. Thus, existence is meaningless due to mechanism or the world, unplanned accidents, past irrelevancy.
Letter Reflection:
After reading the letter, I learned that there can two points of view in the novel Grendel. One of the points of view was that one could act, as there is God and make values in life; on other hand, the other point means that life is pointless with no values in life, which makes a person live in a lie. Also, I learned that Beowulf was not a true hero for his people; instead he was just an irony. At the end of the novel Beowulf kills the Dragon and he had brought treasure to the people, but what does that mean? Even though they have treasure, that does not mean Beowulf have saved its people, there were the swedes who were going to attack the Geats. The treasure does not mean anything, which makes it an irony. Therefore, the lesson is that no matter how a person is noble, he or she cannot win everything. Then I saw the Dragon's point of view, which informs us that nothing can outlive the universe, which makes life very short. Therefore, the quote "Seek out gold and sit on it" tells that have a gratifying life and live short. Most importantly, I had learned what true authors are. For example, an author must think about all the point of view of the question that the author is going to answer. John Gardner had put two novels together into his own poem and novel, which were Beowulf and Jeal Paul Sartre. Therefore, the main question in the novel seemed to be "Is there God?" Also, Gardner had showed good explanation of what the Shaper was doing with good examples. He had mentioned that George Washington didn't become a hero, but people made him a hero. Therefore, Hrothgar was probably not a good hero until Shaper had really praised him. I learned that Grendel was laughing at Beowulf because Grendel wanted to end his pointless life. One important thing that I learned was that always author has some purpose for their novel. For example, the novel teaches us that there is varieties point of views in life that will helps us to think what to do. The letter seemed to help me to understand the philosophy of the novel. There were a lot of ideas that I did not see very carefully. For example, I though that Grendel was laughing because he could have some fun with Beowulf instead of having tedious life. Therefore, the letter was very informative for me to understand the deeper thought of this novel. Thus, the letter taught me many things with giving good ideas to do well on my trial. The important thing that I learned to do in the trial was to mention that Grendel laughed because he wanted to end his pointless life. I wanted to use this on the trial. Also, the letter had gave me some good background information about the Position two's questions. Also, I want to use the idea about George Washington and Lincoln where the people make them as hero. Therefore, the letter really gave me good ideas that I can use in the trial.